EXPORT OVERVIEW

Australia’s fresh onion exports experienced a considerable downturn in 2025, recording the weakest performance since 2018. Total export value fell sharply by 47 percent, from $40 million to $21 million, while export volumes dropped by 46 percent, effectively halving shipments to 21,979 tonnes.

This decline reflects challenging conditions across global markets, with almost all major destinations recording reduced demand for Australian onions.

The Australian onion industry has been particularly impacted by delays in finalising the Australia–EU Free Trade Agreement (AUEU-FTA), resulting in lost market share to competitor countries that are able to export onions tariff-free into these key markets.

Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, the Netherlands, Belgium and Japan were the top five markets for fresh onion exports over the period. However, each of these markets recorded notable contractions, highlighting the scale of the challenge facing the onion export sector.

Thailand remained Australia’s largest onion export destination, but performance was at its weakest since 2018. Export value fell by 49 percent from $7.9 million to $4 million, while export volumes dropped by 45 percent from 9,543 tonnes to 5,229 tonnes. A similar trend was evident in the UAE, where export value declined by 46 percent from $4.5 million to $2.4 million, and volume fell by 38 percent to 2,540 tonnes.

The European market also softened significantly. Exports to the Netherlands dropped by 49 percent in value, from $4.3 million to $2.2 million, while volumes fell even more sharply, down by 57 percent to just 1,691 tonnes (refer to Table 3).

Change in onion exports by destination

IMPORT OVERVIEW

According to data from the Global Trade Atlas, onion imports into Australia recorded a modest increase in value and volume between January and November 2025. Import value rose to $7.2 million, while import volumes increased by 15 percent, from 6,961 tonnes to 8,024 tonnes.

China, the Netherlands and New Zealand were the top three origin markets for onion imports. The majority of imports from China consisted of semi-processed onion products. While the value of these semi-processed imports from China declined by 13 percent, from $5.2 million to $4.6 million, the volume increased slightly to 5,918 tonnes (see Table 4).

Change in semi-processed onion imports by destination